Nikolay Kuznetsov

Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov (24 July 1904-6 December 1974) was an Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union who served as People's Commissar of the Navy during World War II.

Biography
Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov was born in Medvedki, Russian Empire in 1904 to a peasant family of Serbian descent, and he joined the Soviet Navy in 1919. In 1924, he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and he graduated from the Frunze Higher Naval School in 1926 and from the Naval College in 1932. From 1936 to 1937, he served as the naval attache to Republican Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and he developed a strong dislike of fascism during the war. In 1938, he was given command of the Pacific Fleet, and he managed to save some of his fellow naval officers during the Great Purge, although many others were imprisoned and/or executed. Kuznetsov predicted Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, and the Soviet Navy was ready for battle when Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941. In May 1944, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, and he served in the Stavka as the chief of the navy. On 31 May 1945, he was given a rank equivalent to Marshal of the Soviet Union. From 1946 to 1947, he served as commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy, but he fell out of Joseph Stalin's favor in 1948 and was demoted to Vice-Admiral. In 1951, Stalin ended Kuznetsov's pariah status by once again placing him in command of the Navy, and his rank was restored upon Stalin's death in 1953. However, his newfound prominence made him rivals with his former Stavka colleague Georgy Zhukov, who had him dismissed after the battleship Novorossiysk was struck and sunk by an old German naval mine in 1955. After the retirements of Zhukov (in 1957) and Nikita Khrushchev (in 1964), a movement to restore Kuznetsov's rank began, but Kuznetsov died in disgrace in 1974. It was not until 1988 that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of Russia posthumously restored his ranks and titles.